SATA connectors vs channels?

[Mike89]

I have 6 SATA connectors on my mb. If I connect 1 device per connector, Device Manager will not show 1 device per channel. It will show multiple devices on some channels and on other channels there will be nothing at all. So evidently each connector does not mean one channel as I thought it did. I had 6 SATA connectors so thought I had 6 channels but it's not quite that way. Apparently other factors are in place that decide which devices are on which channels regardless of which SATA connectors they are connected to. I've experimented with moving devices around the SATA connectors (trying to get 1 device on 1 channel) and the results are confusing cause the channels move differently than the devices moved on the connectors. Perhaps someone with more knowledge than me on this subject can't shed some light on my dumb ***.

 

[petteyg359]

That's often a result of having your BIOS set to IDE emulation, since an IDE controller allows two drives per port. Make sure it is set to AHCI.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I believe your board has two different SATA controllers. Are you sure it isn't showing drives as to which controller they are plugged in to?

 

[Mike89]

My mb actually has 8 SATA connectors, 6 on one controller and 2 on another. I'm not even using the other 2. I do have it set up IDE. I thought the only way to go ACHI (once the OS was installed) was to re-install Windows (7). Is this not true?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313676